Another summer and garden season is coming to an end. As it gets near the end of September you are probably trying to get the last of the vegetables to get bigger or ripen and hoping the frost holds off another night.
The time comes, though, when it is time to clean up the garden for the winter and get it ready for next spring. What you do in the garden in the fall is also getting it ready for next season’s garden.
Picking the Last of the Veggies
By the end of September, you have warm sunny days but cool nights. You watch the forecast and if there is a chance of frost you cover the garden the best you can. Knowing that tomorrow will still be warm and sunny and the rest of the tomatoes and winter squash can ripen and you can get just a few more peppers a little bigger. Continue to go through the garden and harvest everything you can. Pick the winter squash at just the right time. Pumpkin is ready to be picked when the fruit is uniformly orange and the rind is hard. When you cut it from the vine, leave 3 – 6 inches of stem. Acorn, Hubbard and butternut squash are ready when the skin or rind is hard and cannot be punctured with a thumbnail. The mature squash will have a dull, dry look to it as compared to the shiny smooth look of the the immature fruit. Acorn has the shortest shelf life at 5-8 weeks in cool dry conditions. Butternuts are good for 2-3 months, and Hubbard at 5-6 months. Pumpkins are good for 2-3 months as long as they are kept in a cool dry climate like a basement. Don’t forget all the root vegetables–the radishes, carrots, onions, garlic and anything else. Trim try pick the herbs before they get any frost on them.
You will probably have a lot of green or half ripe tomatoes. You can bring those in the house and ripen them by putting them in a brown paper bag. The best way I have found is to get several of those cardboard trays that a case of beer or pop comes in. Place the tomatoes in a single layer and cover with newspaper and put them in a cool dry area and check them each day. Or you could make green tomato relish.
The Hard Freeze
By Halloween if you’re lucky, you’ve covered the garden on the frosty nights and now the hard freeze nights occur. It is time to get the garden ready for winter. You have to get the garden ready before the ground freezes. Start by taking out the tomato plants and make sure to get all the roots. Tomato plants need to be put in the garbage, do not put them in the compost pile or dig them into the garden since they can carry fungus and other diseases from one season to the next. The rest of the plants can go into the compost pile and or dug into the garden. Dig up everything and turn over the dirt. You can add in some of your already made compost into the dirt along with fallen leaves.
Here comes a decision, and I have tried it both ways. Once I cleaned up the garden and turned over all the dirt, I used to cover the garden with the last of the lawn clippings, thinking that over the winter some of this would decay and turn into fertilizer for next seasons garden. Every year I did this, the next spring I would have more bugs than usual, especially flea beetles that would eat half my garden before the 4th of July. A long-time gardener told me not to cover the garden with anything. Dig it up and turn over the dirt and then leave it bare over the winter. The freezing and thawing would actually break up the dirt and by leaving the dirt bare, the freezing would kill any leftover bugs and their eggs. Since leaving the garden bare I have had less bugs to deal with in the next year’s garden.
When I turn over the dirt in the fall I leave it just like that, bare with dirt clods and all. I take all the leaves I rake and the last of the lawn clippings and put them into the compost bin.
Flowers
Fall is the time to plant bulbs for next year’s flowers. According to the Netherlands Flower Bulb Information Center, planting bulbs about six weeks before the ground freezes is a good time to plant bulbs. You can trim or deadhead your flowers in the fall or wait until early spring. Once the perennials have turned brown, you can cut the stalks to about 4 inches above the ground.
Garden Soil
Fall is a good time to check your soil’s pH level. If it needs raising or lowering do it in the fall so it can work over the winter. You can get soil testing kits at garden shops or your local extension service office.
Tools and Other Garden Items
Don’t forget to put away all the garden stakes, tie them together so they are handy next year. Stack the tomato cages neatly and out of the way; they have a habit of blowing all over the patio in mid winter. Bring in all of the clay pots, since they can freeze and crack.
Clean all of the tools and get them ready for next year. With shovels, spades and hoes you can spray them with an oil of some kind, even cooking oil, to keep them from rusting and make them easier to clean next year. Clean any tools you used for cutting plants, this can keep any fungus or disease from this year’s garden from getting into next year’s garden and plants.
How to Harvest and Store Garden Vegetables
